WASHINGTON — Without suggesting a new path toward Mideast peace, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed frustration Friday with the Israeli-Palestinian impasse while insisting the Obama administration will “not lose hope.”
She said the U.S. will keep pressing for a solution, and called on Israelis and Palestinians to set aside differences.
“It is no secret that the parties have a long way to go and that they have not yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires,” she said in a dinner speech at the Saban Forum, a Mideast policy seminar sponsored by the Brookings Institution think tank. “And like many of you, I regret that we have not gotten farther, faster.”
She spoke just days after the administration dropped an effort to persuade Israel to impose a temporary freeze on some settlement activity. The Palestinians insist that direct peace talks cannot resume until Israel halts settlement construction.
Clinton made clear that she thinks the Israelis and Palestinians are ultimately responsible for settling their long conflict.
“Unfortunately, as we have learned, the parties in this conflict have often not been ready to take the necessary steps,” she said. “Going forward, they must take responsibility and make the difficult decisions that peace requires. . . . Ignoring the other side’s needs is in the end self-defeating.”
And she said the status quo is untenable. “We will push the parties to grapple with the core issues,” she said. “We will work with them on the ground to continue laying the foundations for a future Palestinian state.”
